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New Delhi:
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley Saturday
trashed a US embassy cable, released by Wikileaks, in which an
American diplomat purportedly wrote that Jaitley had remarked during
a meeting that Hindu nationalism was an "opportunistic" issue.
Jaitley maintained that he had not used the term "opportunistic" in
reference to Hindu nationalism and that it was "neither my view nor
my language".
The cable from the charge d'affaires at the US embassy here to
Washington on the diplomat's meeting with the BJP leader on May 6,
2005, had said: "Pressed on the question of Hindutva, Jaitley argued
that Hindu nationalism 'will always be a talking point' for the BJP.
However, he characterised this as an opportunistic issue."
It also said that in India's northeast, for instance, Hindutva
played well because of public anxiety about illegal migration of
Muslims from Bangladesh.
"With the recent improvement of India-Pakistan relations, he (Jaitley)
added, Hindu nationalism is now less resonant in New Delhi, but that
could change with another cross-border terrorist attack, for
instance on the Indian Parliament," the cable, accessed by The
Hindu, said.
Jaitley, in a statement, said the cable reflected his views on
cross-border terrorism, illegal infiltration from Bangladesh and the
unfair denial of US visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
"However, the use of the word 'opportunistic' in reference to
nationalism or Hindu nationalism is neither my view nor my language.
It could be the diplomat's own usage," he said.
But the Congress was unwilling to spare the Leader of Opposition in
the Rajya Sabha, who had attacked the Manmohan Singh government over
alleged pay-offs during the July 2008 confidence vote.
"Chickens are coming to roost, what goes out wrongly hits back like
a boomerang. People living in glass houses are taught in this manner
if they were to throw stones at others," Congress spokesman Abhishek
Manu Singhvi said.
An earlier American diplomatic cable leaked by Wikileaks had stated
that BJP would not review the Indo-US civil nuclear deal if it
returned to power.
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